The Quack Shack

[Supercow]

Do Not clean eggs for hatching. That removes the bloom which is very important for keeping bacteria out of the fetuses. Dirty eggs are fine. Never wash eggs for harching.

Yup, that was my understanding as well, that's why I only metioned dry paper.

I talked also with some people locally and it seems that "stop overthinking it, the ducks knows" is the most sensible approach (while having an incubator available as a backup in case the ducks does know but does not care).

 

[Supercow]

Have you had any luck removing the F from the Fartichokes? Some say boil in an acid, some say boil in an alkali medium...

Here's an article about the acid approach and the fermenting appproach
https://modernfarmer.com/2018/02/jerusalem-artichoke-sunchoke-recipe-prevents-gas/

 

[Jenbirdee]

Have you had any luck removing the F from the Fartichokes? Some say boil in an acid, some say boil in an alkali medium...

the more you eat them ( once or twicea week for a couple months) your body adjusts

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

We're getting started on the (f)artichokes this year as well, the order should arrive in May, various cultivars.

Hey kale! What kind? For ducks or for people as well? I love the tuscan "black" (lacinato, cavolo nero) kale. And so do the ducks. Over the winter they have been picking dilligently at the plants that grow outside - black kale and chinese (napa) cabbage.

It's getting to be time here to sow tomatos (they'll go into the greenhouse when tall enough so that brings everything 3-4 weeks forward).

The few times i have tried Artichokes in my life, i was not impressed. You eat more of the dip than the artichoke leaves themselves. The plants themselves are gorgeous if you don't eat the flowers but leave them to open.

The Kale is called »Dwarf Blue Curled Vate's« and though the seeds are intended to be grown for human consumption it will be grown here to feed the dux. My plan is to grow as much Kale, Cabbage and Savoy-Cabbage as possible, chop it, stuff it into zip-lock bags and throw it into the freezers as winter-food for the dux. Cabbage got really expensive here this winter, so i had to stop feeding it to the flock which might have caused the egg-strike. For the humans i have sown white and purple Kohlrabi, colorful Cauliflower and

I have over-wintered Peppers and Chillies on my patio-greenhouse, hopefully that will translate into a better harvest this year. The peppers have a full year head-start and are over ½meter tall. They don't look nice, but are very strong, more like shrubs than what you usually know as pepper.

I wish i had a dedicated greenhouse - one of my long-term plans is to build a sunken greenhouse into my hill, for now the patio with a lot of artificial light has to do. Tomato and more pepper plants are due to be sown asap. Leek,Onions, Celery and swiss-chards is next. I try to grow seedlings indoors for almost everything, so that the limited garden space is best used.

This weekend it is time to spray the fungal treatment for the trees and the roundup in the veggie beds. Thank's to the dux i don't have to deal with pest insects too much.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

ooooohhhh sunchokes yes I got them last year just 25 planted them in a 10x40 spot they grew 9 feet tall it was a jungle then a storm blew them over BUT they grew up from sideways anyway LOL we had a HUGE harvest and ate so many BTW their nickname is Fartichokes . I just fixed up that area for them to grow again this year they have so many pretty yellow flowers too I love them

Oh! Now i understood @Supercow 's post. Fartichokes, not artichokes.
I want to try them out for a couple of reasons: First i have mostly poor soil and the German Wikipedia claims that they thrive in poor soil, they are easy to grow and the harvest is supposed to be very high. The flowers will be feeding the bees throughout the whole growing season. I will do some experiments with the tubers, from feeding them to the dux, to eating them myself

to producing syrup, maybe raw sugar and maybe even fermenting some. A lot to learn.

I have also ordered Yacón seeds, another tube producing member of the sunflower family from south-america.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Have you had any luck removing the F from the Fartichokes? Some say boil in an acid, some say boil in an alkali medium...

What about processing it through dux and turning it into yummy eggs?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

do your ducks dig up and eat the tubers ? or just the leaves ? my ducks can’t reach mine. I tossed some tubers into their pen while I was harvesting, but my ducks don’t care for them. however, the chickens eat them and the geese nibble on them.

You have very tame ducks! - Mine were digging up the potatoes last fall.

 

[Supercow]

What about processing it through dux and turning it into yummy eggs?

"Ducks, guinea fowl, quail, rabbits, budgies and many other animals also gladly eat Jerusalem artichoke tubers. The best part is they don't need to be grated or cooked, just dig them up, brush off most of the soil, and throw them in - the animals will know what to do."
well, this sounds good.
https://living-mudflower.blogspot.com/2017/10/jerusalem-artichokes.html

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

if my ducks had access to my kale, it would be murdered

There is a reason why i have increased the height of the fence around my garden from 30 to 60cm (1 to 2'). If they manage to break into the garden it's a fully grown massacre! They eat everything: Tomatoes, Peppers, Berries, Kale, Cabbage even the potatoes are not safe, including the green plants.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

They gobbles them up whole as I dug them up! Maybe its because they were the fingerling type and thus looked like huge grubs?

They didn't touch the plants themselves.

My hope is that either the fartichokes or the yacon will be able to take over my whole hill-site from the broom-grass and provide me, the dux, the bees and the wildlife with an infinite source of carbo-hydrates. Just in case things go really wrong in the …